by Graham Baates

What Makes a Better Barrel?

Although the fact remains that most handguns are more accurate than their user, and most off-the-shelf ammo is too inconsistent to be super accurate, there is some merit to barrel replacement. Glock handguns are loved as much as Ford Mustangs and Honda Civics for their aftermarket support. It’s not uncommon to meet a Glockophile who has spent more money on aftermarket parts than the gun originally cost. This is in part due to the relative ease with which anyone can modify a Glock with drop-in parts. These modifications make shooting fun and in turn result in more trigger time to test out the latest change. So much trigger time that eventually barrel replacement becomes a good idea, or perhaps you’re ready to make the experience a bit quieter with the addition of a suppressor.

The challenge then becomes determining which of the dozen-or-so options is the best barrel for the money. We’ve tried several different Glock barrels and had four on hand for our Glock 19. When we received the barrel from L2D Combat it was immediately noticeable that the quality was a bit different. This was not a foreign-made wad of metal, but rather steel crafted with the intent of making something better.

Made of 416R steel, crowned, and lapped the L2D Combat barrel has more in common with a precision rifle barrel than most handgun barrel. To truly show the differences the video below was created. While I don’t advocate trying to improve the layman’s accuracy with a better barrel I do agree that by the time you’re ready to replace your barrel you might as well go with the best. Click the image to see a full explanation.